Ignore the “Idiot Issues” of This Election

A guide for thinking clearly about which issues are media-created and what’s actually important. September 29, 2020 [UNSUBSCRIBE]( | [WEBSITE]( [Altucher Confidential] “A guide for thinking clearly about which issues are media-created and what’s actually important...” [hero image] Ignore the “Idiot Issues” of This Election By James Altucher [INCOMING MESSAGE FROM JAMES ALTUCHER]( [Please Enable Images]( you know Coronavirus isn’t what’s driving your stocks up and down like crazy? A while ago I discovered the REAL CAUSE that seems to be driving the markets wildly up and down. [I explain everything in my video — you can click the image to play it…]( [(Watch my short video now, before it’s taken down]( MORNING)]( Scientists and companies are creating vaccines, creating solar panels with four times the efficiency of current solar panels, making rockets, and creating genomics solutions that can cure thousands of major diseases. Let's not stop them. Innovationism is the core philosophy that creates jobs, solves climate change, creates better healthcare, creates less infant mortality, etc. Government does none of this. You either send goods or bullets over borders. And as America is more and more prosperous, it becomes more likely we trade goods rather than bullets. And as more innovations result, more job opportunities are created. [homicidenewsimage] (Are you really going to make an important decision based on what you read in the newspaper?) The presidency needs to do what the Declaration states: Make sure that the liberty and pursuit of happiness of any member of society is not hampered. That is the role of the president. But there are many issues that I will call "idiot issues" that both parties and the media keep bringing up to try to scare people on BOTH sides. Do not pay attention to these issues. This is not a pro-Biden or pro-Trump article, although I keep getting accused of both. Stop it. I feel like if you're not alt-right, people will call you a "libtard" or "snowflake" and if you're not alt-left, people will call you a racist fascist. Since when has it been a crime to be a centrist? Most people are centrists but are afraid to speak right now. So I will. This is more a guide for thinking clearly about which issues are media-created and what’s actually important. Don't make a decision based on issues dictated to you by the media. Here are a few of the idiot issues: ADDERALL Both sides are claiming the other side is taking Adderall. Trump is insisting Biden take a drug test before the debates and Biden is saying no. And others are suggesting that a chunk of Adderall flew out of Trump's nose during a televised press conference. My response: Who cares? First, of course Biden is going to refuse a drug test. These guys are in their 70s. They are taking drugs for all sorts of things. [majorityimage] (I wish the reporter had taken Adderall!) And do you think if they wanted to avoid drug test results, their doctors aren't good enough to fake any result? Of course they are. But why risk it? Personally, if they are taking any kind of "performance-enhancing" drugs to be President of the United States, then power to them. It's not like they have to worry about the health effects for the remainder of their lives (who cares about that?) and it's not like they are "cheating" against other world leaders (again, who cares?) and it's not like they are sending the wrong message to our kids (who all take Adderall anyway). So all the arguments are foolish. I hope they are taking Adderall. PERSONAL TAXES Trump didn't pay taxes for many years. Nobody knows how to interpret this. Did he cheat the government? Is he poor? The answers are obvious: No and no. And everyone understands this. It's stupid to make this an issue. First off, billionaires don't pay income taxes. They don't have an income. Second, their capital gains are wrapped in companies that are wrapped in companies that are wrapped in companies. I doubt any billionaire pays their true taxes. [deathnationimage] (Hmmm...) Second, Biden was "broke" in 2009. And in 2017–2018 he made $15 million. Good for him. This is America. He's had opportunities the regular person doesn't have. Do we blame him for it? No, of course not. Elizabeth Warren is worth $12 million. Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million. Nancy Pelosi is worth over $50 million. Obama is worth $40 million. Even Martin van Buren was worth $29 million by the time he died. All of these guys are worth a lot and taxes are complicated because money is buried in trusts, companies, charities, etc. DEMENTIA Believe me, Democrats know that Biden has some cognitive difficulties. But unless you are a doctor who specializes in this, it's hard to say he has "dementia." When I do a podcast, I often forget what I'm saying and I stutter. When I give a speech I sometimes stutter. And it gets worse as I get older. The other day I had a migraine in the middle of a podcast and it almost seemed like I was having a stroke (my dad died of a stroke so I get scared when I have migraines). The reality is: Everyone close to Biden tells me that Biden has a good bench of people to help him. And most people voting for Biden are really voting "no Trump" so they don't care whether he has dementia. Is Trump hiding any illnesses? Probably. I don't care. Both sides appoint people who they consider experts. UKRAINE: TRUMP OR HUNTER BIDEN Oh my god, I couldn't care less. Was there quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine? I hope there was! We were giving them a ton of money. We better get something back for it. And was Hunter Biden corrupt in his dealings with Ukraine? Of course he was! Why would some random guy make millions on the board of a big Ukrainian company? Because he was the son of the Vice President of the United States. Duh! Is that corrupt? I don't even care. Yeah, OK, it was corrupt. Big deal. They are ALL corrupt. EXECUTIVE ORDERS Oh man, another executive order from Trump. Shouldn't he let the legislative branch do the legislating? Yeah, he should! That's what the Constitution says. Whenever he issues an executive order about, say, drug prices, you have to ask: Can he really enforce this, or is this political messaging? Again, either way, I don't care. Lower drug prices? Sure, sounds good. But I doubt he can get it. Eviction moratorium? Sounds good. But I doubt he can execute on that. As political messaging? Great. Now I know where he stands. [cowsloseimage] Is he over-using executive orders? Here are the last few presidents and their number of executive orders: - Bill Clinton 253 - George W. Bush 291 - Barack Obama 276 - Donald Trump 187 It's not a big deal. The Great American Reset Has Begun... [Please Enable Images]( you feel America changing? I feel it too...The unemployment, the corruption, the stress of never having enough money. Millions of Americans are going to have to turn somewhere else for their income. Luckily, one serial entrepreneur saw this train barreling toward us before it happened, and a while back put together his [177 best ideas for generating income]( in this new America. [Click here to see how this 372-page book could show you how to start building multiple income streams.]( FLIP-FLOPPING I really respect Bernie Sanders. He's had the same political beliefs his entire life. And, by the way, if you watch Trump speaking in the ’80s, he says the exact same things about tariffs and taxes then that he does now. Sanders and Trump have always been pretty consistent about their biggest issues (but not smaller ones). Biden, on the other hand, has switched his beliefs several times. Is this bad? Of course not! I also respect someone who can change beliefs given new data and new circumstances. So this is a non-issue. TRUMP AND SCIENCE Everyone says Republicans are "anti-science" and Democrats are "pro-science." I don't understand this. Trump has followed Fauci's recommendations almost every step of the way. The classic case is when Trump had the travel ban against China and Pelosi called him xenophobic. OK, I don't blame her either for ignoring the importance of the pandemic. I was in San Francisco the exact day Pelosi was trying to get people to go to Chinatown. I WANTED to go to Chinatown that day but Robyn was against it. I guess I was “anti-science.” [forecaster] (Let's get science on this!) I really admire Hong Kong. As soon as there were two cases (TWO!) they had lockdowns, masks, social distancing, etc and they barely had cases. Good for them. We didn't do that. Shame on us. But, as far as I can tell, Fauci was basically in charge of everything in terms of our initial response. Happy to be wrong on this. And there's a lot of questionable science in terms of allowing for protests with 50,000 people, but you can't have weddings or funerals. I don't think we know the full science. In March, just a few months ago, we did not know the contagion rate, the mortality rate, the immunity factor, the herd immunity percentage, whether the virus was man-made, whether it was transmitted through the air or surfaces, the effects of various treatments (HCQ, Vitamin D, Dexamethasone, Doxycycline, etc.) and, to be honest, we still don't. The world just passed 1 million COVID deaths today. Horrible! Hong Kong Flu in 1957 was 2 million deaths and affected children a lot more. Does this mean this is "better" than Hong Kong Flu? No, not at all. But it does question if we did the right thing economically. I don't think we will know what the right decisions were until a post-hoc analysis. And I don't think any expert on either side disagrees with that. I think if decisions had to be made right now, both Trump and Biden would make different decisions than was either made or suggested in February or March. But BOTH seem to trust Fauci. ROE VS. WADE For everyone who is worried about Roe vs. Wade, don't be. I am worried about Roe vs. Wade. I do not want it repealed. But the reality is: It's not going to be. Amy Barrett is an "originalist" who doesn't always believe in precedents to change the Constitution. This, and the fact that she is a religious Christian, makes people believe she will repeal Roe vs. Wade, preventing young girls from having the right to seek abortion. Barrett has said she views Roe vs. Wade a strong enough precedent that she wouldn't repeal it. Personally, I wish there were laws directly related to allowing women to choose to have an abortion if they want to. I don't like that Roe vs. Wade hinges on the interpretation of the 14th Amendment's right to due process to include a right to privacy. I feel that is a flimsy connection. [thebackpageimage] Instead, the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should guarantee rights of women: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…” Since a fetus is not even remotely considered a citizen and assuming that "men" in this context means all people, then women have the same right of liberty as men, and the government's role is simply to protect those rights and not take them away. I wish there were stronger laws about this but Amy Barrett is not going to take away Roe vs. Wade based on her prior experience. JOBS Biden says that Trump is the only president to lose jobs during his term. Trump says that he had the greatest economic boom for jobs ever until the pandemic hit. Both are correct. Under Trump, unemployment was at a historic low, even for Hispanic Americans and African Americans. But under Trump, we had a forced economic lockdown, which reduced jobs to near-catastrophic levels. So you have to ask: dDd Trump cause the downfall of jobs during the pandemic? (Maybe yes, maybe no.) Was the economic lockdown necessary? If he had followed the science, would the economic lockdowns have caused less job loss? (Unclear.) And then you have to ask, regardless of the above, who is more likely to create jobs in a bounceback (this is really the only thing that is important at this point in terms of jobs). Biden and Obama did return America to some employment normalcy after the Great Recession. Credit to Obama for helping build bipartisan support for the TARP bill, as well as the efforts to repeal or reduce FASB 157 , which, in my view, led to the bounceback. And credit to Trump for really ramping up job creation. Whose approach is better? I don't know. That's the issue. Not these empty numbers both sides are saying. RUSSIA Clearly Trump is not a Russian asset. And, correctly, he has been focused on China, which has been much more hostile to America in terms of tariffs, IP stealing, human rights issues, etc. Is Trump allowing Russia to put bounties on American heads? Of course not. Is Russia trying to slowly build back the old Soviet Union? Of course. This has been known for about 20 years and nobody denies this. Will Trump be soft on this and Biden tough? Will Biden be tough on China so they stop stealing our IP and taking our jobs with their tariffs? We'll see. This is the issue. Not some stupid issues about whether Trump is a spy or Hunter Biden is corrupt. I could care less about Hunter Biden and it's ridiculous to think that the president is a Russian asset. DICTATORSHIP Two qualities of a fascist dictator: - State-run economy — Where the government, ruled by one individual, is in charge of every aspect of the economy, from what job you can do, to what businesses stay in business, to who we trade with, to taxes, etc. - Identity politics — e.g., "Aryan people are the best people." Does either side want a government-controlled economy? Does either side play "identity politics"? Yeah, it can be argued both sides play identity politics. And I hope neither side wants a government-controlled economy, which goes against the real source of prosperity in America — the ability to innovate thanks to few government restrictions against innovationism. On the one hand, people are worried Trump won't peacefully transfer power. On the other hands, Hillary Clinton is telling Biden to "not concede" even if he loses by a huge amount. So I'm not sure who is against changing power in the case of an election loss. [unnamed image] Certainly both sides don't want fraud. That is reasonable. And nobody will concede in the case of fraud. Also reasonable. There's certainly been fraud in prior elections and power was transferred. In 1960, Nixon/Kennedy. Nixon barely lost and it may have been due to dead people voting in Chicago. Nixon even contested the election in courts but nothing came of it. 2000, of course. 1876 is the only clear-cut case of corruption I can think of, when Hayes paid off congressmen to vote for him when the election was close enough it was thrown into the house. This was a horrible blemish on American history, which led to much more restrictive Jim Crow laws. Should you be worried about any of the above? Yeah, if you think Trump is a Russian spy. Or if you think Biden is so riddled with dementia he could bypass all safeguards and launch a nuclear weapon, then sure, you should be worried. But these are fake worries. Every decision is either a fear decision or a growth decision. Don't vote for a president out of fear. The media wants you to be afraid. On both sides. That's their business model and, yes, it's a great business model and it works. Vote for a president because you think it’ll make you and the country will grow. What does "growth" mean? That's for each individual to decide. Sincerely, [James Altucher] James Altucher “I Recently Attended an Event Where Billionaire Elon Musk Spoke – It’s [Where I Uncovered The Market’s Next $260 Billion Growth Story]( [conference]( Our Chief Technology Analyst recently found himself at an event with billionaire Elon Musk... You’ll never guess what he uncovered. [Click here for this shocking prediction](. Subsribe To My Podcast [The James Altucher Show]( Add james@jamesaltucher.com to your address book: [Whitelist Us]( [The James Altucher Website]( [Subscribe Via Text]( [Subscribe With YouTube]( [Subscribe On Messenger]( [Subscribe With iTunes]( [Connected on LinkedIn]( Join the conversation! Follow me on social media: [Facebook Group]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Instagram]( Altucher Confidential is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. By submitting your email address, you consent to Choose Yourself Media delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your Altucher Confidential e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Altucher Confidential, feel free to [click here](. Please read our [Privacy Statement](. For any further comments or concerns please [contact us here.]( If you are you having trouble receiving your Altucher Confidential subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox [by whitelisting Altucher Confidential](. © 2020 Choose Yourself Media, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security they personally recommend to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. EMAIL REFERENCE ID: 430ALCED01